Healthy habits key to weight-loss

A Gold Coast-based weight-loss program aims to revolutionise the health and fitness industry by not focusing on diets and training, but through building new mental habits.

Launched in August, Sum Sanos – ‘I am Healthy’ in Latin – is built around a study from Bond University researcher Dr Gina Cleo, who found that healthy habits are the secret to battling the bulge.

Accredited Dietitian Dr Cleo is the Academic Director of Sum Sanos and wants to help people lose weight through changing habits and the way we approach eating.

“About 45 per cent of everything we do every day is habitual, which means we’re not completely conscious of those things,” Dr Cleo said.

“It’s the same with our eating and drinking – half of the things we do every day in terms of eating is actually mindless.

“By looking at those habits, breaking the bad ones and forming the good ones, we can take better control of our eating.

“We drive our behaviour on autopilot… but when you start to break those routines, you begin to think about your behaviour and become more mindful.

“You start to think do I feel like breakfast? Or am I just eating because it’s 7am.”

Bond University researcher Dr Gina Cleo.Photo: Lexy Hamilton-Smith

Dr Cleo believes that simply breaking routines by going a different route home or even not going straight to the kitchen when you arrive at home can stop the neurological triggers that form bad habits.

This ideology has been the substance for this new venture that is tipped to be the next craze for the health and fitness industry.

Sum Sanos wellness coach Ross McDonald has ditched his old life in hopes of a new successful career as a ‘life coach’.

“Weight loss been such a big part of my life and when I heard about the research conducted by Dr Cleo and the Sum Sanos program, I identified with it instantly,” Mr McDonald said.

“I used to be overweight and unhealthy years ago, but I changed my eating habits and concentrated on my diet and have been in shape ever since.

“Anyone can lose weight, it just takes the right mindset and right strategy.

Mr McDonald says that the fact that 61.6 per cent of adults on the Gold Coast are overweight or obese is pretty alarming.

“There is such a large market on the Gold Coast for health and wellness, and this new approach to weight loss will be the next big thing.”

More than 100 coaches from Australia, NZ, the UK, America, Canada and Singapore have come on board in recent months.

Dr Cleo believes that all types of coaches are instrumental to success.

“PT coaches are great for exercise, nutrition experts are great for dietary support and Sum Sanos coaches are great for long-term weight loss and wellness,” Dr Cleo said.

“Sum Sanos doesn’t use dieting as a weight loss strategy, instead, through the support of a coach.

“We’ve incorporated habit based strategies that have been consistently proven as a reliable approach to long term weight loss maintenance.”

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The Source News is produced by Griffith School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science Journalism Media Centre. In addition to our online news site, The Source News is also produced as a weekly radio program broadcast on Global Digital (July – Nov). Griffith Communication and Journalism